Self Care Ideas While Decluttering

by Susan McCarthy

Celebrate each step you take in the right direction, even if you're silently telling yourself, "Good job!"

If you are involved in a major decluttering task, be it at your home or a parent or relative’s house, it’s all too easy to feel as if you need to keep pushing yourself through the task until it’s done – even if you know it will take days, weeks, or even months, to reach a “finish line.”

You may face a lot of negative self-talk, “Look at all the money I wasted on this stuff.” “Why did they keep this stuff? Didn’t mom and dad care how much time it would take me to get rid of their junk?” “How did I let things get so out of hand?” “I need to keep pushing myself as punishment for ending up in this position.”

However, some self-care can help you stay energized during your decluttering project. Taking care of yourself while decluttering and rewarding yourself afterwards will help you realize that you are accomplishing a lot.

My Story

In 2009, my then boyfriend (now husband) and I moved in together, selecting an apartment between his mother’s and my parents’ houses (which were maybe one mile apart). Several weeks later, my mother died, and I’d regularly check on my father on my way home from work. In 2011, he was diagnosed with dementia and moved into assisted living.

I was in the habit, each morning, of driving to a nearby park to take a walk. I drove past my father’s house. Assisted living is expensive, so I wasn’t certain if and when we’d need to sell the house. One day, instead of driving to the park, I stopped at the house to wrap my head around what would be involved in emptying the place. My parents were hoarders – everything had seemed important to them. I filled some bags of trash and then asked my brother if he could call his connection and get us a dumpster.

Once the dumpster arrived, I never went on my walks. I’d dress for exercise, but then stop to empty the house. My flexible work schedule didn’t help because I could get caught up most mornings in four or five hours of going through boxes and bags and cabinets.

I’d finally realize that I hadn’t eaten breakfast … and it was lunchtime. I was reacting to the dust and mold I’d stirred up while purging. I’d go home, shower, eat lunch, and crash on the couch. Physically, mentally, and emotionally, I was overwrought. ​

Self Care While Decluttering Your House

There are a few things that you can do to be nice to yourself while you are decluttering.

• Set a start and an end time. To encourage yourself to stop, connect the end time to a scheduled appointment that you can’t forget. (For example, picking up a child at school; going to work; or, even, answering the phone because you’ve arranged for someone to call you.)
• Before you start, take a picture. When you finish for the day, take another picture. It’s so easy to get caught up in noticing what we still have to do, that we hardly acknowledge what we’ve done. Give yourself a sense of what you’ve accomplished. I wish I took more pictures.
• Drink plenty of water. If you get dehydrated, your thoughts can become fuzzy and this can make it more difficult to make decisions or even maintain your energy. While decluttering my parents’ house, I wouldn’t drink water for four hours, in July. No wonder I felt wiped out.
• Stop for a snack. After three hours of decluttering, plan on a healthful snack. Eat an apple, a handful of nuts, a cheese stick, or something else … but not candy!
• Give yourself permission to touch stuff more than once. Yes, productivity experts want you to handle something once and decide right then. But, instead of causing your thoughts to freeze or loop around themselves, grant yourself permission to set something aside and look at it a second (or fifth) time before you decide what to do with it. Just because you need to look at or handle something a few times doesn’t mean that you want to keep it … it just means you need a little more time with it.

Self-Care Rewards for Getting Rid of the Clutter

If you spent four hours cleaning your closet or eight hours sorting through the garage, you deserve a reward. Even if you have more decluttering to do, give yourself some downtime to recharge and reflect on what you’ve accomplished.

• Apply some hand cream. You’ve been handling a lot of objects, maybe washing your hands more frequently. Rubbing in some hand cream is some simple self-care. Scheduling a manicure is more expensive, but another option for caring for yourself.
• If you know you’ll be doing some heavy-duty moving, bending, stretching, and carrying, you may want to schedule a massage to work out the kinks from the physical and mental stress of dealing with so much stuff.
• Plan time to take a nature walk; sit outside; read a chapter or two of a book; or even watch a couple of episodes of a favorite television show. Do not consider this time an escape but a reward for doing some difficult work.
• Create a sensory experience. Light some scented candles, listen to some soothing music, pat your pet, drink a hot beverage, wear comfortable clothing. Even if you slow down for ten minutes, make it enjoyable.
• Avoid calming yourself with a big bag of peanut M&Ms, a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, or a bag of chips. Maybe you’ve used food to self-soothe, but it doesn’t really help you. I gained a fast 20 pounds eating sugaring snacks “to give myself some energy” and to unwind after a stressful day.

Yes, You Deserve a Break

I know, you’ll just go through one more box of stuff and then get a snack. Or, if you squeeze in an extra hour’s work today, you’re convinced that you’ll get done faster – only, you haven’t noticed that the longer you work, the slower you go.

Plan. If you are sorting through boxes of paper in your home office, have a bottle of water and a snack on your desk when you start. Set your smartphone alarm as a reminder to stop, even if for five minutes. Make time to reread a favorite book at the end of the day. Be nice to yourself.

However, don’t reward yourself for getting rid of clutter with a trip to the mall! Plan a nice experience – a trip to a museum or the library, a walk in the woods or a couple hours at the beach, or even dinner with someone special – for when you finish with a room or complete a task you know will be difficult (such as sorting old photographs).

These are all things that I wish I had offered myself while decluttering my parents’ house; now, I offer them to you.

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Other helpful articles:

• Four Core Benefits of Declutteringbenefits.html